Shanghai’s Redevelopment of the West Bund Pushes Out Art Galleries

Shanghai’s leading destination for art galleries and private museums for the last decade, the West Bund Cultural Corridor has displaced more than eight adjacent art spaces with its large-scale redevelopment initiatives. Among these are ShanghArt Gallery, Don Gallery, Aike Gallery, Pond Society, and Qiao Space, as well as the studio of artist Ding Yi. These departures come on the heels of previous departures from the area around Longteng Avenue of the private Yuz Museum and the Shanghai Center of Photography (SCoP), marking a shift in the cultural landscape of the once vibrant art district in the Xuhui District.

ShanghArt Gallery said goodbye to its two-story headquarters in West Bund on June 21. Conceived by Shanghai-based firm Archi-Union Architects and opened in 2015, the design of the ShanghArt building drew inspiration from the stacked shipping containers that once populated the industrial docks of the Huangpu River. In addition to exhibition spaces, the facility also housed an artists’ archive and the ShanghArt Library, the gallery’s extensive collection of art publications. The gallery operates another project space in the M50 complex located in the former textile mills at 50 Moganshan Road. ShanghArt is also organizing three exhibitions in a temporary space at the West Bund Commercial Park development in the vicinity of Long Museum and Start Museum.

ShanghArt’s neighbors have also been impacted, receiving eviction notices in March, according to The Art Newspaper. Qiao Space, a private exhibition venue founded by the prominent Chinese collector Qiao Zhibing, shut its doors on June 15 and was demolished shortly thereafter. Additionally, Don Gallery closed following the conclusion of its solo exhibition of Guangzhou- and Shenzhen-based photographer Wang Ningde on June 28, with plans to relocate. Pond Society, founded by the art collector Xue Bing, marked its termination with a four-day exhibition from June 12–15 by artist Zhang Peili titled “Deadline.” The project featured a blue oxygen tank suspended on a wire that was dragged, dropped, and bashed into the walls.

Announced in 2014, the West Bund was established as a waterfront cultural district to serve as a “base for artwork storage, trade, and exhibitions” that “reflect[ed] the municipal government’s ambition to make Shanghai a major international art center,” according to the Shanghai West Bund Development Group Co. It attracted private museums including the still-operational Long Museum, TANK Shanghai, Start Museum, and West Bund Art Museum, which has a multiyear partnership with the Centre Pompidou to loan artworks from the French museum and provide training for museum professionals. The district has also hosted the West Bund Art & Design fair since 2014. The recently completed West Bund Art Center, a former cement factory with a domed ceiling, was remodeled by the Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen into a performing arts and multipurpose venue and sits next to TANK Shanghai.

As the city’s ambition to host high-tech firms has grown, it has clashed with the cultural agenda for the area. In 2020, galleries were offered spaces to rent in a new West Bund Art Tower. However, according to some reports many of the spaces lacked high ceilings and the galleries decided against moving in. The building was later sold to Chinese tech giant Alibaba. In 2022, the West Bund Art Hall was temporarily converted into a Covid-19 camp, during which time galleries within the compound were prohibited from accessing their offices. In the last decade, property values have soared and the West Bund has significantly readjusted its central positioning as a premier platform for financial and technological industries under the major listed property investment and management group Hongkong Land in a USD 8 billion redevelopment. Construction of a new AVANT West Bund Digital Intelligence Center commenced in February 2024 in tandem with the neighboring West Bund AI Valley and West Bund Media Port, to attract major international technology conglomerates and expedite the formation of an AI industry cluster in Shanghai. The district’s development pipeline also encompasses high-end office buildings and luxury residential apartments, expected to be completed in 2027, as well as the West Bund Orbit, a recently opened public art center designed by British architecture studio Thomas Heatherwick.

Despite the nationwide property slump and challenges in the art market, many departing galleries are on the lookout for new locations, with interest in the central Bund area or near Suzhou Creek, where the Fotografiska Shanghai photography museum has recently opened. However, aspirations for a dynamic, enduring new cultural enclave in Shanghai now appear ever more improbable. As the rapid transformation of West Bund unfolds, its new emphasis on technology raises pressing questions on how to reconcile the demands of commercial growth with the imperative to preserve artistic spaces that are central to Shanghai’s cultural legacy.

Mioie Kwok is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.

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